The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1887-04-02

N NelLler inc uOp6 nOT LuemOEy VI JOys
Helpless she died, with one despairing cry:
81 thought it good How could I tell the lie?"
And answered Nature, merciful and stern,
"I teach by killing. Let the others learn"
Charlotte p. Stetson in Woman's Journal.
A Talk to Mothers.
DEFORMITIES OF CHILDREN WHICH MAY
BE AVOIDED BY EXERCISING REA-
soNABLE CARE.
One of the things of the utmost i'm
portance, if a mother would have her
child grow up symmetrical in form, says
Emma C. Hewitt in the Philadelphia
Times, is to watch her baby with un-
ceasing vigilance during his sleep. One
able physician declares that to careless
ness upon this point is due most of the
shortness of life not produced by actual
disease. "Note your child well, said
he to young mother, when he is asleep,
if you would have him grow up straight.
You will find that from your own habit
of most conveniently holding on one
particular side that he will soon grow
to prefer to lie upon one side only.
Il have one patient who is able tc
nurse her child only from the right
breast, the left one having gathered, and
the left side of that baby's face is per
ceptibly smaller than the right, because
from force of habit he has grown to pre-
fer to lie upon his left side, and she ha
ignorantly permitted him to do so.
''You will find, too, that during hi
sleep he will draw up habitually one leg
if lying upon one side, the other leg i
lying upon the other. Turn him offer
and straighten his legs. This will no
only conduce greatly to his comfort, bu
much to your own, for frequently, whel
baby stirs and seems inclined to wake
it is because the soft little limbs have
grown tired from lying in one position
Turn him over, not too gently, for b.
this very caution you will be most like
a---.-.- - --4e o. .s'-.-,
PCT, and he is off for another hours nap.
Indeed have known babies treatet
in this way to sleep along for five or 81,
hours at stretch, when otherwise the,
would have been up perhaps in hal
nap. The process can be repeated will
safety just SO long as the baby will stay
asleep. Very often babies waken, no
because they wish to rouse at all, bu
because they want to turn over and de
not know how to accomplish it.
1t stands to reason that child habit
ually lying upon one side should habit
ually draw up one particular leg, thu.
producing, while the bones are soft ano
forming, lesser or greater difference
in length; and next, children should be
put into short clothes just as soon a:
practicable, and should not at any time
be forced to wear excessively long ones
The weight of such garments is very Diet
rimental to the growth and development
of the lower limbs. These Che lowel
limbs) should be well protected, but tc
put upon little baby two or three skirts
four or five times as long as the little
fellow himself, and keep them in place
by pinning them SO tight around hin
that he cannot breathe, is not 'protec
tion,' it is cruelty.
The garments should be so short a:
to insure at least moderate degree o
freedom of action. 1t will do the baby
good to go naked a little while each
day, to kick and fence at bis own sweet
will. Let the room be warm, hot if you
choose, but let the baby kick. Not only
will his lower limbs be developed by
this freedom of action, but his lungs
will be benefited, his chest be expanded
and his muscles be strengthened in all
parts of his body.
Let us now pass on to the time when
slight defects, either created through
ignorance or inborn, have taken hold
of the system.
A mother notices that her four-year-
old daughter is acquiring habit OF
holding her head slightly upon one side.
Still it looks 'cute' and the child is per-
mitted to do it, without any idea upon
her mothers part that there may be a
cause for the habit. 1t tgrows upon her,
however, and becomes confirmed. BY
the time she is seventeen one shoulder
is higher than the other, and she no
longer looks cute, she only looks hope
lessly awkward, and the mother tries by
scolding and threats of various processes
to break up the ugly habit Lo, by
some accident it is suddenly discovered
that in all these years, while this 'cute,'
ugly habit has been forming, the daugh-
ter has been using but one eye, the Wis
ion of the other being defective to.such
degree as to be practically useless.
Had she had spectacles or judicious
treatment for her eyes when the 'habit'
firstset in she would have been as straight
as any of her neighbors.
Mary Ann complains of a pain in her
back. Her mother says: Nonsense.
Girls ought not to have any backs. But
Mary AIMS back remains fixed fact,
nevertheless, spite of maternal protest.
Aunt Jane suggests porous plaster, and
the pain growing no better, porous
plaster is forthwith clapped on, though
her mother don't approve of coddling
young girls Noreliefl Grandmother
suggests iodine, Uncle John blister,
and to make assurance doubly sure, now
that she has set about the business of
curing Mary Ann, she puts on both,
much to Mary AIMS discomfort, but
nothing at all to her relief.
Slightly alarmed and almost convinced
that Mary AIMS back is no fiction,
the advice of physician is asked. He
measures and questions, and says final
ly: MADAME, your daughters legs are
not the same length. Raise the heel of
one shoe and the difficulty will be OBJ